Sirius Lives!

Sirius XM (SIRI) reported Q2 '09 earnings essentially in-line with consensus estimates, with a subscriber loss that was not as bad as many expected, though still down from last year.

Sirius' increase in full-year guidance and less-than-expected sub loss may have accounted for the run up in the shares the past few days. (That could explain, in part, their 11% drop in pre-market trading today.)

As a result of better-than-expected cost control the company increased its guidance for full-year 2009 adjusted income from operations to about $400 million from about $350 million. Here are the highlights, pro forma for the acquisition of XM Satellite Radio:

Revenue up 1% to $608 million.

Adjusted operating income from operations of $132 million, up from a loss of $61 million during the prior year's quarter.

Net subscriber loss of 186,000 (most were expecting a loss of between 300,000 to 400,000), leaving the company with 18.4 million subscribers at the end of the quarter.

Average monthly churn (rate at which subscribers drop the service) up to 2.0% from 1.7%.

Over the long-term though investors will likely be looking for more assurance that the company will be able to continue to clean up its balance sheet and some indication that auto sales, a major driver of subscriptions for the company, will at least stabilize from its current slide.